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Station staff pose for a photographer in 1902. There are five men, one woman, three girls and a boy, most likely including station master Edwin Deverell and his family. The clock gives the time as 12.42 pm. (Norman Ellis postcard collection.)
Woodlesford's station building had a very distinctive design with a
square central block and identical wings. It was built from local stone
and by the early 20th century was covered in pebble dash which was
painted with whitewash. Over the years it turned grey from the smoke of
passing trains.
One striking feature was that the windows appeared to show the building
had a first floor above the offices and waiting room. That impression,
however, was false and certainly towards the end of its life there were
no upstairs rooms.
At some point a brick extension with barred windows was added at the
rear. Next to that was a wooden building known to station staff as "the
bug hutch". It had originally been used as a signal cabin but was moved
when a larger signal box was erected at the end of the Up platform. In
later life the cabin served as a messroom for the staff and the motor
lorry drivers from Hunslet Lane goods station.
A forlorn looking station building in 1970 after it was closed and shortly before it was demolished. The posters advertise the new Pay Train service. The "bug hutch" had already gone but the brick built office extension,
with its barred windows, can just be made out.
Most of the station buildings on the North Midland were designed by
Francis Thompson, notably the rather ornate designs at Oakenshaw for
Wakefield and Cudworth for Barnsley. There were other buildings of a
similar basic style to Woodlesford at other stations between Leeds and
Derby, for example at Wingfield, so its reasonable to suppose that
Woodlesford was also designed by Thompson.
Its not clear when it was built but its certainly shown on an Ordnance
Survey map published in 1846, as is the North Midland Railway Hotel, a
quarter of a mile away on Aberford Road, which survives today as the
Midland Hotel. An identical building at Cudworth was shown on an 1888
plan as being the station master's house.
Its reasonable to assume therefore that the one at Woodlesford doubled
as living accommodation until the station master and his family were
given a bigger house which was finished in 1866 and is still standing
looking down on the station car park. This could also explain the
mystery of the upper floor which may have been removed when the new
house was finished.
Unfortunately the station building was demolished by British Rail soon
after the station became an unmanned halt in 1970. Apparently they would
have had to pay local authority rates on the unused building and like
so much of our unique railway heritage it was destroyed to keep the
accountants satisfied. If it had managed to cling on for a few more
years perhaps its heritage value would have been recognised and it might
today have found an alternative use.
A light engine heads towards Leeds. Photo by Derek Rayner.
 Shortly before the station building was demolished in 1970. Photo by Geoff Brunton.
An identical building at Cudworth which was used as the station master's house. | |
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